How many people smoke in NSW?

Adult smoking

About 16% of people in NSW (14% of women and 19% of men) are daily or occasional smokers.1Aboriginal people are about two times as likely to smoke, with almost two-thirds of Aboriginal men and women saying they smoke.2

Youth smoking

About one quarter of NSW school students say they have smoked tobacco at least once, 17% said that they had smoked in the past 12 months and 7% in the last 7 days.3

Smoking among disadvantaged groups

As Illustrated in Figure 1, Smoking rates are much higher among some disadvantaged groups.These high rates of smoking among already disadvantaged and vulnerable groups make smoking an important social justice issue. Smoking damages people’s health, increases their financial stress and erodes their quality of life. See theTackling Tobacco Program for information about Cancer Council NSW’s smoking and disadvantage strategy.

10 Phillips, B. Burns, L. (2012) New South Wales Drug Trends 2011: Findings from the Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS). Australia Drug Trends Series No. 74. Sydney, National Drug And Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales.